WTNH in New Haven, CT is reporting Illegal immigrants arrested two days after ID proposal passes

Federal agents storm through New Haven rounding-up illegal immigrants in sweeping raids just two days after the city approved I.D. cards for un-documented residents.

Mayor John DeStefano, (D), said the timing is certainly curious. The board of aldermen passed the bill on Monday and on Wednesday morning, agents carried out sweeping raids in the city. The city said it is something that has never happened before.

A dawn raid and at least 29 undocumented workers are arrested by federal agents, using what the DeStefano describes as questionable tactics.

"ICE entered the home with no warrants, they searched every room in the house, they had all the occupants, including the children, gather in the living room, they separated the men from the women and even had the children on the floor," said DeStefano.

Sound familiar? On March 6th, ICE staged a similar early morning attack in New Bedford, MA.

In the early morning hours of March 6th, hundreds of Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents raided a leather factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts. 361 employees, most of whom were women, were arrested in the sweep. The majority of those arrested were expeditiously booked and flown to detention facilities in Texas. Immigration rights activists have condemned the March 6th ICE raids saying that it has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Immigrant families were ripped apart by the raids as hundreds of children, many of whom are U.S. citizens, became separated from their primary caregivers. The raid has also economically devastated families that depended on the income of workers arrested and detained. Humanitarian relief efforts in New Bedford, Massachusetts have been hampered by the widespread fears that have spread since the raid. Outrage over the immigration sweep has even reached Congress as Senator Kennedy criticized the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency by saying they, “performed disgracefully.”

Tearing apart families of legal U.S. Citizens is the latest of example of ‘Family Values’ that the Bush administration values so highly.

Over at CT Local Poltics, Gabe reports, “Boston-area spokesman for ICE, Paula Grenier ... indicated, as reported in the Independent linked below, that these raids are happening all over the country, all the time”

She is right. To use the words of Sen. Kennedy, ICE is performing disgracefully in New Bedford, MA, New Haven, CT, and around the country.

(Cross posted at BlueMassGroup)